Recent Videos

Japanese Reporter Who First Reported on Sexual Slavery to Teach at Catholic University of Korea

David Lee, Nov. 27, 2015, 8:03 a.m.

Former Asahi Shimbun reporter Takashi Uemura, who was the first Japanese journalist to report on the plight of Korean women forced to serve as sex slaves for Japanese troops during World War II, will start teaching at a university in Korea next year.

Uemura, 57, will leave Hokusei Gakuen University in Hokkaido when the current academic year ends in March and become a visiting professor at the Catholic University of Korea, which has a student exchange agreement with Hokusei Gakuen. The Japanese university reportedly plans to officially announce Uemura's departure soon.

Uemura has been the victim of continuous harassment by right-wing groups since 1991, when he first reported on the Korean sex slaves, euphemistically referred to as "comfort women" in Japan. His articles about the women were based in part on testimony from the late Kim Hak-soon, who was the first former sex slave to step up and speak about her horrific ordeal at the hands of the Japanese. Hokusei Gakuen University has received repeated threats since hiring Uemura as a lecturer in 2012.